The religion of the ancient Egyptians often appears very alien to moderns eyes, with animal-headed gods and complex temple structures. Their belief in an afterlife, which necessitated the practice of mummification, can also seem strange. Some ancient Egyptian gods represented aspects of the natural environment, such as the sun, the moon, or crocodiles, but they were also seen as complex beings.
Egyptian temples were the places where the gods lived, and the priests who worked there were their servants ensuring that they provided produce for the god’s table, as well as food for the priesthood. At special festivals the images of the gods might be carried out of their temples in procession, or travel by river to visit other deities. This would be almost the only chance for ordinary people to interact with the god of the local temple. Within their homes, Egyptians revered gods related to fertility and child bearing. They believed in an apparently sophisticated form of afterlife, in which various spiritual aspects of a person, including the ka, the ba, and the akh, continued to exist and required maintenance. This meant spending considerable time and expense on providing for the afterlife and in preserving the bodies of the dead so that the spirits could return there to be reunited. For the Egyptians, a person was made up of five parts which included two physical characteristics (his name and shadow) and three invisible elements; the ka (life force), the ba (similar to personality) and the akh (spirit). For the Ancient Egyptians, the divine nature of the universe was manifested in a multitude of ways. Their gods, for example, could appear in the guise of animals, illustrating a fundamental belief that all forms of life were an expression of the divine. Similarly, the sky and its heavenly bodies, as well as a number of environmental and climatic features of Egypt, were embodied by deities such as Nut, who personified the sky, and Hapy, who was the god of the annual Nile inundation.
For Ancient Egyptians there were different theories of the beginning of the universe. These creation myths evolved in the country’s major cult and usually concentrated on the role played by local gods. The Memphite theology states that the god Ptah brought all things into existence by pronouncing their names. The Theban theology regarded Amun as the source of the power of all the gods, and the original creator of the universe. The creation myth of Hermopolis Magna identified eight primeval forces responsible for the creation of the universe. The different aspects of creation were symbolized in the form of four pairs of deities: Nun and Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet (hidden), Heh and Hauhet (infinity), and Kek and Kauket (darkness). Together, these gods brought into being the primeval mound from which life emerged. According to the Heliopolitan creation myth, the solar deity Atum gave life to Shu and Tefnut (air and moisture). This male-female pair then produced Geb (earth) and Nut (sky), then completed by their offspring: Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys.
The Ancient Egyptians worshiped a number of gods and goddesses, each of whom had different roles or functions:
Amun
~Amun~ He was usually represented as a man with a double-plumed crown, or with a head of a ram. His importance among the gods was due in large part to the way in which he was combined with other powerful deities. With the sun god, Ra, he became Amun-Ra, and with the fertility god Min, he became Amun-Min. As a personification of air or hidden power, he represented one of the elements that allowed the universe to come into existence. The temple at Karnak is dedicated to Amun.
Anubis
~Anubis~ Represented as a dog, or as a man with a dog’s head; was a god of the dead, closely associated with the process of mummification and embalming. The priests who performed these rituals on the deceased are thought to have taken on the role of Anubis by wearing jackal masks. He was also considered to be a guardian of cemeteries, known in this guise “lord of the sacred land” and “foremost of the divine booth”.
Bastet
~Bastet~ The local deity of Bubastis in the eastern Nile Delta, Bastet was the daughter of Ra and the protective aspect of the aggressive lioness goddess Sekhmert. Her earliest form was a woman with the head of a lioness, but by the first millennium BC she appeared in the more gentle guise of a cat or a cat-headed woman, sometimes accompanied by a group of kittens. The ancient town of Bubastis is the site of a red granite temple dedicated to Bastet.
Bes
~Bes~ Dwarf-god believed to ward off snakes, and was regarded as a -protector of the family, associated with childbirth and sexuality. His image is found on birth houses on the period (747-332 BC).
Khunm
~Khunm~ The ram god was associated with the annual Nile inundation and the fertile soil of the Nile Valley, which related to his role as potter god. He was responsible for fashioning the unborn child from clay and placing it as a male seed in the mother’s body. The best preserved temple of Khunm is at Esna, built during Greco-Roman times (332 BC – AC 395), where he is depicted as creator of the universe, including gods, humans, animals and plants.
Hapy
~Hapy~ God of the Nile inundation, the annual flooding of the great river, and was worshiped as an embodiment of the floods and the ensuring fertility. He was usually depicted as an androgynous figure with a beard, pendulous breasts and a pot belly, wearing a headdress of papyrus plants. Hapy was also closely associated with the creator god Khnu, who was worshiped at Elephanties as the god of the Nile springs.
Hathor
~Hathor~ The bovine goddess was one of the most important deities in Ancient Egypt, and had a variety of associations. She was regarded as the goddess of a number of the pleasurable aspects of life, such as dance, music, sexuality and alcohol. She was also considered, as Isis, to be the divine mother of the reigning pharaoh. In addition she was “lady of Byblos”, “lady of the West”, and “lady of turquoise”; she was responsible of receiving the setting sun each evening and keeping it safe until dawn. Hathor could also offer protection for the deceased in the afterlife.
Horus
~Horus~ The falcon god was regarded as the embodiment of divine kingship. In Osirian mythology, Horus was involved in a long and arduous struggle with the evil god Seth to claim his rightful place as king of Egypt and avenge the murder of his father, Osiris. As a deity of the sky, Horus was associated with the moon and the sun, seen as a god of the east and thus the sunrise. At his temple at Edfu in Upper Egypt, he was worshiped as part of a triad with his consort Hathor and their child Harsomtus.
Isis
~Isis~ The goddess was the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, becoming identified as Hathor, as the divine mother of the reigning pharaoh. As the devoted wife of Osiris, she mummified and reanimated his dismembered body after he had been murdered by Seth, and magically conceived their son Horus in the process. She was also known as “Isis great in magic”, because she had healing powers and the ability to protect the young. Her most famous cult site was the island of Philae near Aswan, where a temple was constructed in her honor.
Maat
~Maat~ The personification of truth, justice and harmony, responsible for regulating the stars, the seasons and the actions of both humans and gods. Maat was described as the daughter of Ra, indicating that pharaohs were believed to rule trough her authority. She was portrayed as a woman with an ostrich feather on her head, or sometimes represented by the feather alone.
Montu
~Montu~ A falcon-headed god of war, was one of the most important deities in Ancient Egypt. His cult was based in the Theban region, were several temples were constructed in his honor, at Armant, Karnak, Medamud and Tod. Montu represented the more aggressive aspects of kingship, being closely associate with the conquests of neighboring countries.
Nephthys
~Nephthys~ The sister of Isis and wife of the evil god Seth, and also in a later myth the mother of Anubis through a union with Osiris. She was a protector of the dead, often pictured at the head of the deceased’s coffin, with Isis at the feet.
Nut
~Nut~ In the Heliopolitan creation myth, the sky goddess Nut was on of the nine gods who created the earth. Paintings depict Geb, the consort of Nut and representation of the earth, lying on the ground with only the tips of her fingers and toes as the couple try to be reunited. As the personification of the sky, Nut swallowed the setting sun, Ra, every evening and gave him birth to him from her womb in the morning.
Ra
~Ra~ The sun god, had his main cult at Heliopolis in the outskirts of modern Cairo. Worship of Ra reached its peak in the Fourth Dynasty (2613-2494 BC) when the “son of Ra” title was added to the royal titular. Such was the importance of Ra in the pantheon that his cult incorporated into the worship of several other gods, forming deities such as Amun-Ra and Ra-Horakhty. Ra was depicted as a hawk-headed figure wearing a headdress featuring the solar disc.
Seth
~Seth~ Murderer and evil brother of Osiris and enemy of Horus, he had a protective role of guarding Ra in his 12-hour journey through the night. He is depicted as a boar or hippopotamus, but mostly with the body of a man and the head of a mythical animal with a long nose and squared ears.
Sobek
~Sobek~ The crocodile god was principally worshiped in the Fayum region and at Kom Ombo, was associated with the strength and power of the pharaoh, as well as being a means of warding off the crocodiles of the River Nile. As Sobek-Ra, he was worshiped as an aspect of the sun god.
Ptah
~Ptah~ Originally associated with craftsmen, and this connection to probably contributed to his elevation to creator god. Ptah was depicted enveloped in a close-fitting rob, with his hands emerging holding a staff that combined the djed pillar, ankh sign and was scepter (symbols of stability, life and welfare). By the Late Period, Ptah was combined with Osiris and the hawk god Sokar to become Ptah-Sokar-Osiris.
Osiris
~Osiris~ One of the most important of all the Ancient Egyptian gods, he was associated with death, resurrection and fertility; he ensured existence in the afterlife. Osiris was the father of Horus and husband of Isis, who mummified and reanimated his dismembered body after he was murdered by his evil brother Seth. He was brought back to life by his wife Isis and Anubis, who embalmed his body. He did not return to earth, where he once reigned, but became the god of the dead; if his teachings were followed he could grant eternal life.
Thoth
~Thoth~ Depicted with the head of a baboon or an ibis, he was the god of writing and wisdom, as well as a lunar deity. His cult was at Hermopolis Magna, where two colossal statues of the god still stand.
Sekhmet
~Sekhmet~ The lioness goddess and the fire-breathing "eye of Ra", represented the destructive aspects of the sun; her task was to destroy the enemies of her father Ra, the creator and sun god. According to legend, Sekmhmet was sent by Ra to punish, not eradicate, the human race who had rebelled against him.
Min
~Min~ God of fertility that was worshiped in an annual festival in the city of Thebes, at which the pharaoh offered the god the first ear of corn from the beginning of the harvest. Min's skin and beard are painted black, the color of the Nile silt from which crops grew. The color was therefore a symbol of life and fertility. He is usually shown as a human figure in the form of a mummy, his right arm raised, with a fail above it.
In addition to the major deities, such as Ra, Horus and Isis, the Ancient Egyptians worshiped a variety of minor gods. These did not have temples and monuments dedicated to them, but they had a domestic role; providing protection and aiding fertility. They appeared in more domestic settings, frequently incorporated into the design of furniture (beds), musical instruments, pottery and other vessels, or in the form of amulets.
Tawaret
~Taweret~ A household deity, closely associated with the protection of women in childbirth. The goddess took the form of a hippopotamus, usually portrayed with the arms and legs of a lion and the tail of a crocodile, and a full belly that suggested pregnancy. Images of Taweret appeared on amulets, vases and as decoration on beds and headrests from the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC).
Renenutet
~Renenutet~ The snake goddess who despite her fierce appearance is a benevolent deity, was portrayed as a cobra or as a woman with a cobra's head. She was regarded as the protector of the king and a fertility goddess, responsible for securing and protecting the harvest. Renenutet was celebrated once a year in a festival in the Fayum region, where she was associated with the gods Sobek and Horus.
Companion of Ptah
~The companions of Ptah~ In the late period (747-332 BC), the creator god Ptah was sometimes depicted in the form of a naked dwarf, and as regarded in this manifestation as having curative powers against snake and scorpion bites.
Serket
~Serket~ Along with the goddesses Isis, Nepththys and Neith, she protected the Canopic jars containing the organs of the deceased. She was usually portrayed as a woman with a rearing scorpion on her head, or as a woman with a scorpion's tail.
Heket
~Heket~ Depicted as a frog, she was credited with fashioning the child in the womb and giving it life.
Meskhenet
~Meskhenet~ Identified with the birth brick on which Ancient Egyptian women delivered their children, and was determining the child's destiny from the time of its birth.
Sokar
~Sokar~ The falcon god of the Memphis necropolis was originally a local deity, a patron of craftsmen although he was also venerated as an earth or fertility god. By the Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BC), his cult was combined with those of Osiris and Ptah, to form the Ptah-Sokar-Osiris.
Seshat
~Seshat~ The goddess of writing and measurement, depicted as a woman in a long, panther-skin dress and wearing a star and a bow on her head. In temples of the Old and Middle Kingdoms she is shown recording the spoils of war.
The religion of the Ancient Egyptians was closely linked to their natural environment and the creatures they shared it with. Therefore their gods where worshiped in the form of animals, or as humans with the head of an animal. The Apis Bull, symbol of fertility and the physical manifestation of the creator god Ptah, was the most important of all sacred animals worshiped by the Ancient Egyptians. When one of the Apis bulls died, there was a period of national mourning. The corpse was embalmed at Memphis and taken along the sacred way to Saqqara, for burial in a granite sarcophagus in the underground catacombs of the necropolis of the Apis. The mothers of the Apis bulls were regarded as manifestations of Isis and were buried in a similar manner to their offspring in the Iseum located further to the north of Saqqara.
Mummified Apis Bull
All along the Nile river there are cemeteries devoted to bodies of several species of animal, including hawks, dogs, baboons, cats, rams, crocodiles and cattle. Some necropolises have yielded hundreds of thousands of mummified beasts. In temples, the animal gods were typically worshiped in two different forms: as a cult statue shut away in an inner sanctuary and in the form of an animal kept in the grounds of the temple. When the sacred animal died, the priests would embalm it and bury it with great ceremony in a cemetery reserved for its own kind, before they chose its replacement.
The pharaoh, as the high priest of every cult, was the only person permitted to worship the gods. But even the king could not be in more than one sanctuary at the same time, and priests were required for the daily rituals in the temples. The clergy in the great temples were organized in a strict hierarchy; at the summit was the chief priest or "first prophet", the pharaoh's personal representative, and a few high-ranking priests who assisted him. As the only officials permitted to approach the god's statue enclosed in the sanctuary, these priests wielded considerable power, both religious and secular, controlling wealth in the temple's treasury and the lands of its estates. Most did not hold permanent positions, divided into four or five teams, they took turns in the service of their local god one month in every four, and when their term was over they returned to civil life as junior bureaucrats or craftsmen. Priests received a fixed proportion of temple revenues and many of these positions were passed from father to son. There were other specialized priestly functions: sem priest; who performed the last rites on the deceased, and the hour priests; astronomers who determined lucky and unlucky days and decided on the most auspicious times for festivals. There were also temple musicians who were drawn from the ranks of noblewomen.
The Ancient Egyptians believed that death was simply an interruption, rather than the end of life, and that the afterlife should consist of the best that was available and pleasurable in earthly existence. This could be brought by various means, like piety to the gods and the preservation of the body through mummification, along with the nourishment and protection of the spirit forms which survived death. Enjoyment of the afterlife could be achieved by burying the body with a set of funerary equipment, and its most elaborate by building the painted and highly decorated tombs of royalty, complete with food, drink, tomb servants and other desirable objects. The first step was the preservation of the body and later on as anatomical knowledge grew; embalmers were able to preserve the internal organs. The body was dried out in natron, a compound of soda bicarbonate, then treated with salves and resins before being wrapped in linen bindings, sometimes as much as hundreds of meters long.
The Egyptians used elaborate mummification techniques on the bodies of the dead which where designed to ensure the souls's unification with the body in the afterlife. Until the fourth century AD, it was custom in Ancient Egypt to take a dead body (after a short period of mourning) to the embalming house, where it was given to the priests responsible for mummification. The priests began by breaking one of the skull bones and extracting the brain, using a metal hook. Then they cut along the body's left flank with a blade of obsidian (a black, glass-like stone) and removed the internal organs to be preserved and buried with the mummy. The stomach cavity was cleansed with palm wine and aromatic essences, and filled with myrrh powder and other substances before the incision was sewn up. The corpse was then covered with natron and left to dry for about 70 days. After this period, the body is just dried flesh and bone, was cleansed, rubbed with aromatic oils and wrapped in linen bindings of several hundred meters long. The fingers, hands and feet were wrapped first, then the torso and finally the entire body. If the deceased was high in rank, golden caps were placed on the fingers and toes of the corpse. A gold foil plate, marked with hieroglyphs to ward off bad luck, was put into the incision in the body cavity, and the eyes were replaced with jewels.
Canopic Jars
Canopic jars: vessels for internal organs Organs taken from the body were completely dried, then anointed with sweet-smelling ointments, before being wrapped in linen, like the rest of the body, and stored in Canopic jars. The contents of the jars were placed under the protection of four minor gods called Sons of Horus; the human-headed Imsety looked after the liver, the jackal-headed Duamutef guarded the stomach, the ape-headed Hapy protected the lungs and the falcon-headed Qebehsenuef looked after the intestines.
Sarcophagus
After the prepared mummy was placed in a sarcophagus, and the organs sealed in Canopic jars, the funeral procession to the tomb began. The heaviest pieces, such as the sarcophagus and the jars, were hauled to the grave on sleds. The relatives and friends, and a long line of bearers, were accompanied by wailing and moaning women; professional mourners. This professional mourners were wailing women, usually dressed in pale blue, who shouted lamentations, while beating their breasts and striking their heads on the ground Everything that the deceased needed in the afterlife was taken: chests of clothes and jewellery, furniture, perfumes and food, and sometimes writing materials to show the scholarship of the deceased. All of these, along with the sarcophagus and the Canopic jars, was sealed in the chamber of the tomb. As the dead had to be recognized in the afterlife, the linen-wrapped corpse was fitted with a mummy mask showing the idealized features of the deceased. In the afterlife, the deceased hoped to achieve a godlike form, so in death they sought to imitate this appearance much as possible.
Professional mourners: wailing women
Opening of the Mouth Ceremony
Before the body was left in the tomb certain rituals were performed. The most important was the "Opening of the Mouth" ceremony, an elaborate procedure involving incantations, purification and anointing of the mummified body that restored the dead person's faculties so that he or she could be reborn in the afterlife. Finally, the mummy was placed inside the coffin, which was taken down to the vault into a burial chamber. Canopic jars and food supplies for the deceased, along with funerary furniture, were also deposited in the chamber before the tomb was sealed by local masons. After the burial, family and guests enjoyed a feast of all kinds of food, wine and beer in honor of the dead. This took place outside the tomb.
Before the deceased could enter the underworld, he had to first face the divine tribunal; this was called "Weighing of the Heart". In this ceremony the deceased earthly deeds were judged by 42 gods overseen by Osiris. In this ritual, the heart, representing a person's past deeds (intellects, emotions and conscience), was weighed against a feather, symbol of justice of the gods. This test was only passed of the balance was level or in the hearts favor, and only then could the deceased travel on to eternity and the afterlife. The deceased is lead into the judgement hall by the god Anubis, whom also conducts the act of the weighing of the heart against the feather. The falcon-headed god Horus is the one that checks the accuracy of the scales, while the god Thoth records the results of the weighing. If the heart was heavier than the feather it was consumed by Amut, the Devourer of the Dead; who was part crocodile, part lion and part hippopotamus. The god of the dead, Osiris, seated on a throne, presides over the tribunal, but waits until told the official result of the test by Thoth.
Egyptian temples were the places where the gods lived, and the priests who worked there were their servants ensuring that they provided produce for the god’s table, as well as food for the priesthood. At special festivals the images of the gods might be carried out of their temples in procession, or travel by river to visit other deities. This would be almost the only chance for ordinary people to interact with the god of the local temple. Within their homes, Egyptians revered gods related to fertility and child bearing. They believed in an apparently sophisticated form of afterlife, in which various spiritual aspects of a person, including the ka, the ba, and the akh, continued to exist and required maintenance. This meant spending considerable time and expense on providing for the afterlife and in preserving the bodies of the dead so that the spirits could return there to be reunited. For the Egyptians, a person was made up of five parts which included two physical characteristics (his name and shadow) and three invisible elements; the ka (life force), the ba (similar to personality) and the akh (spirit).
For the Ancient Egyptians, the divine nature of the universe was manifested in a multitude of ways. Their gods, for example, could appear in the guise of animals, illustrating a fundamental belief that all forms of life were an expression of the divine. Similarly, the sky and its heavenly bodies, as well as a number of environmental and climatic features of Egypt, were embodied by deities such as Nut, who personified the sky, and Hapy, who was the god of the annual Nile inundation.
For Ancient Egyptians there were different theories of the beginning of the universe. These creation myths evolved in the country’s major cult and usually concentrated on the role played by local gods. The Memphite theology states that the god Ptah brought all things into existence by pronouncing their names. The Theban theology regarded Amun as the source of the power of all the gods, and the original creator of the universe. The creation myth of Hermopolis Magna identified eight primeval forces responsible for the creation of the universe. The different aspects of creation were symbolized in the form of four pairs of deities: Nun and Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet (hidden), Heh and Hauhet (infinity), and Kek and Kauket (darkness). Together, these gods brought into being the primeval mound from which life emerged. According to the Heliopolitan creation myth, the solar deity Atum gave life to Shu and Tefnut (air and moisture). This male-female pair then produced Geb (earth) and Nut (sky), then completed by their offspring: Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys.
The Ancient Egyptians worshiped a number of gods and goddesses, each of whom had different roles or functions:
He was usually represented as a man with a double-plumed crown, or with a head of a ram. His importance among the gods was due in large part to the way in which he was combined with other powerful deities. With the sun god, Ra, he became Amun-Ra, and with the fertility god Min, he became Amun-Min. As a personification of air or hidden power, he represented one of the elements that allowed the universe to come into existence. The temple at Karnak is dedicated to Amun.
Represented as a dog, or as a man with a dog’s head; was a god of the dead, closely associated with the process of mummification and embalming. The priests who performed these rituals on the deceased are thought to have taken on the role of Anubis by wearing jackal masks. He was also considered to be a guardian of cemeteries, known in this guise “lord of the sacred land” and “foremost of the divine booth”.
~Bastet~
The local deity of Bubastis in the eastern Nile Delta, Bastet was the daughter of Ra and the protective aspect of the aggressive lioness goddess Sekhmert. Her earliest form was a woman with the head of a lioness, but by the first millennium BC she appeared in the more gentle guise of a cat or a cat-headed woman, sometimes accompanied by a group of kittens. The ancient town of Bubastis is the site of a red granite temple dedicated to Bastet.
Dwarf-god believed to ward off snakes, and was regarded as a -protector of the family, associated with childbirth and sexuality. His image is found on birth houses on the period (747-332 BC).
The ram god was associated with the annual Nile inundation and the fertile soil of the Nile Valley, which related to his role as potter god. He was responsible for fashioning the unborn child from clay and placing it as a male seed in the mother’s body. The best preserved temple of Khunm is at Esna, built during Greco-Roman times (332 BC – AC 395), where he is depicted as creator of the universe, including gods, humans, animals and plants.
God of the Nile inundation, the annual flooding of the great river, and was worshiped as an embodiment of the floods and the ensuring fertility. He was usually depicted as an androgynous figure with a beard, pendulous breasts and a pot belly, wearing a headdress of papyrus plants. Hapy was also closely associated with the creator god Khnu, who was worshiped at Elephanties as the god of the Nile springs.
The bovine goddess was one of the most important deities in Ancient Egypt, and had a variety of associations. She was regarded as the goddess of a number of the pleasurable aspects of life, such as dance, music, sexuality and alcohol. She was also considered, as Isis, to be the divine mother of the reigning pharaoh. In addition she was “lady of Byblos”, “lady of the West”, and “lady of turquoise”; she was responsible of receiving the setting sun each evening and keeping it safe until dawn. Hathor could also offer protection for the deceased in the afterlife.
~Horus~
The falcon god was regarded as the embodiment of divine kingship. In Osirian mythology, Horus was involved in a long and arduous struggle with the evil god Seth to claim his rightful place as king of Egypt and avenge the murder of his father, Osiris. As a deity of the sky, Horus was associated with the moon and the sun, seen as a god of the east and thus the sunrise. At his temple at Edfu in Upper Egypt, he was worshiped as part of a triad with his consort Hathor and their child Harsomtus.
The goddess was the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, becoming identified as Hathor, as the divine mother of the reigning pharaoh. As the devoted wife of Osiris, she mummified and reanimated his dismembered body after he had been murdered by Seth, and magically conceived their son Horus in the process. She was also known as “Isis great in magic”, because she had healing powers and the ability to protect the young. Her most famous cult site was the island of Philae near Aswan, where a temple was constructed in her honor.
~Maat~
The personification of truth, justice and harmony, responsible for regulating the stars, the seasons and the actions of both humans and gods. Maat was described as the daughter of Ra, indicating that pharaohs were believed to rule trough her authority. She was portrayed as a woman with an ostrich feather on her head, or sometimes represented by the feather alone.
A falcon-headed god of war, was one of the most important deities in Ancient Egypt. His cult was based in the Theban region, were several temples were constructed in his honor, at Armant, Karnak, Medamud and Tod. Montu represented the more aggressive aspects of kingship, being closely associate with the conquests of neighboring countries.
~Nephthys~
The sister of Isis and wife of the evil god Seth, and also in a later myth the mother of Anubis through a union with Osiris. She was a protector of the dead, often pictured at the head of the deceased’s coffin, with Isis at the feet.
~Nut~
In the Heliopolitan creation myth, the sky goddess Nut was on of the nine gods who created the earth. Paintings depict Geb, the consort of Nut and representation of the earth, lying on the ground with only the tips of her fingers and toes as the couple try to be reunited. As the personification of the sky, Nut swallowed the setting sun, Ra, every evening and gave him birth to him from her womb in the morning.
The sun god, had his main cult at Heliopolis in the outskirts of modern Cairo. Worship of Ra reached its peak in the Fourth Dynasty (2613-2494 BC) when the “son of Ra” title was added to the royal titular. Such was the importance of Ra in the pantheon that his cult incorporated into the worship of several other gods, forming deities such as Amun-Ra and Ra-Horakhty. Ra was depicted as a hawk-headed figure wearing a headdress featuring the solar disc.
~Seth~
Murderer and evil brother of Osiris and enemy of Horus, he had a protective role of guarding Ra in his 12-hour journey through the night. He is depicted as a boar or hippopotamus, but mostly with the body of a man and the head of a mythical animal with a long nose and squared ears.
~Sobek~
The crocodile god was principally worshiped in the Fayum region and at Kom Ombo, was associated with the strength and power of the pharaoh, as well as being a means of warding off the crocodiles of the River Nile. As Sobek-Ra, he was worshiped as an aspect of the sun god.
Originally associated with craftsmen, and this connection to probably contributed to his elevation to creator god. Ptah was depicted enveloped in a close-fitting rob, with his hands emerging holding a staff that combined the djed pillar, ankh sign and was scepter (symbols of stability, life and welfare). By the Late Period, Ptah was combined with Osiris and the hawk god Sokar to become Ptah-Sokar-Osiris.
~Osiris~
One of the most important of all the Ancient Egyptian gods, he was associated with death, resurrection and fertility; he ensured existence in the afterlife. Osiris was the father of Horus and husband of Isis, who mummified and reanimated his dismembered body after he was murdered by his evil brother Seth. He was brought back to life by his wife Isis and Anubis, who embalmed his body. He did not return to earth, where he once reigned, but became the god of the dead; if his teachings were followed he could grant eternal life.
~Thoth~
Depicted with the head of a baboon or an ibis, he was the god of writing and wisdom, as well as a lunar deity. His cult was at Hermopolis Magna, where two colossal statues of the god still stand.
The lioness goddess and the fire-breathing "eye of Ra", represented the destructive aspects of the sun; her task was to destroy the enemies of her father Ra, the creator and sun god. According to legend, Sekmhmet was sent by Ra to punish, not eradicate, the human race who had rebelled against him.
~Min~
God of fertility that was worshiped in an annual festival in the city of Thebes, at which the pharaoh offered the god the first ear of corn from the beginning of the harvest. Min's skin and beard are painted black, the color of the Nile silt from which crops grew. The color was therefore a symbol of life and fertility. He is usually shown as a human figure in the form of a mummy, his right arm raised, with a fail above it.
In addition to the major deities, such as Ra, Horus and Isis, the Ancient Egyptians worshiped a variety of minor gods. These did not have temples and monuments dedicated to them, but they had a domestic role; providing protection and aiding fertility. They appeared in more domestic settings, frequently incorporated into the design of furniture (beds), musical instruments, pottery and other vessels, or in the form of amulets.
~Taweret~
A household deity, closely associated with the protection of women in childbirth. The goddess took the form of a hippopotamus, usually portrayed with the arms and legs of a lion and the tail of a crocodile, and a full belly that suggested pregnancy. Images of Taweret appeared on amulets, vases and as decoration on beds and headrests from the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC).
The snake goddess who despite her fierce appearance is a benevolent deity, was portrayed as a cobra or as a woman with a cobra's head. She was regarded as the protector of the king and a fertility goddess, responsible for securing and protecting the harvest. Renenutet was celebrated once a year in a festival in the Fayum region, where she was associated with the gods Sobek and Horus.
In the late period (747-332 BC), the creator god Ptah was sometimes depicted in the form of a naked dwarf, and as regarded in this manifestation as having curative powers against snake and scorpion bites.
~Serket~
Along with the goddesses Isis, Nepththys and Neith, she protected the Canopic jars containing the organs of the deceased. She was usually portrayed as a woman with a rearing scorpion on her head, or as a woman with a scorpion's tail.
~Heket~
Depicted as a frog, she was credited with fashioning the child in the womb and giving it life.
~Meskhenet~
Identified with the birth brick on which Ancient Egyptian women delivered their children, and was determining the child's destiny from the time of its birth.
~Sokar~
The falcon god of the Memphis necropolis was originally a local deity, a patron of craftsmen although he was also venerated as an earth or fertility god. By the Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BC), his cult was combined with those of Osiris and Ptah, to form the Ptah-Sokar-Osiris.
~Seshat~
The goddess of writing and measurement, depicted as a woman in a long, panther-skin dress and wearing a star and a bow on her head. In temples of the Old and Middle Kingdoms she is shown recording the spoils of war.
The religion of the Ancient Egyptians was closely linked to their natural environment and the creatures they shared it with. Therefore their gods where worshiped in the form of animals, or as humans with the head of an animal. The Apis Bull, symbol of fertility and the physical manifestation of the creator god Ptah, was the most important of all sacred animals worshiped by the Ancient Egyptians. When one of the Apis bulls died, there was a period of national mourning. The corpse was embalmed at Memphis and taken along the sacred way to Saqqara, for burial in a granite sarcophagus in the underground catacombs of the necropolis of the Apis. The mothers of the Apis bulls were regarded as manifestations of Isis and were buried in a similar manner to their offspring in the Iseum located further to the north of Saqqara.
All along the Nile river there are cemeteries devoted to bodies of several species of animal, including hawks, dogs, baboons, cats, rams, crocodiles and cattle. Some necropolises have yielded hundreds of thousands of mummified beasts. In temples, the animal gods were typically worshiped in two different forms: as a cult statue shut away in an inner sanctuary and in the form of an animal kept in the grounds of the temple. When the sacred animal died, the priests would embalm it and bury it with great ceremony in a cemetery reserved for its own kind, before they chose its replacement.
The pharaoh, as the high priest of every cult, was the only person permitted to worship the gods. But even the king could not be in more than one sanctuary at the same time, and priests were required for the daily rituals in the temples. The clergy in the great temples were organized in a strict hierarchy; at the summit was the chief priest or "first prophet", the pharaoh's personal representative, and a few high-ranking priests who assisted him. As the only officials permitted to approach the god's statue enclosed in the sanctuary, these priests wielded considerable power, both religious and secular, controlling wealth in the temple's treasury and the lands of its estates. Most did not hold permanent positions, divided into four or five teams, they took turns in the service of their local god one month in every four, and when their term was over they returned to civil life as junior bureaucrats or craftsmen. Priests received a fixed proportion of temple revenues and many of these positions were passed from father to son. There were other specialized priestly functions: sem priest; who performed the last rites on the deceased, and the hour priests; astronomers who determined lucky and unlucky days and decided on the most auspicious times for festivals. There were also temple musicians who were drawn from the ranks of noblewomen.
The Ancient Egyptians believed that death was simply an interruption, rather than the end of life, and that the afterlife should consist of the best that was available and pleasurable in earthly existence. This could be brought by various means, like piety to the gods and the preservation of the body through mummification, along with the nourishment and protection of the spirit forms which survived death. Enjoyment of the afterlife could be achieved by burying the body with a set of funerary equipment, and its most elaborate by building the painted and highly decorated tombs of royalty, complete with food, drink, tomb servants and other desirable objects. The first step was the preservation of the body and later on as anatomical knowledge grew; embalmers were able to preserve the internal organs. The body was dried out in natron, a compound of soda bicarbonate, then treated with salves and resins before being wrapped in linen bindings, sometimes as much as hundreds of meters long.
The Egyptians used elaborate mummification techniques on the bodies of the dead which where designed to ensure the souls's unification with the body in the afterlife. Until the fourth century AD, it was custom in Ancient Egypt to take a dead body (after a short period of mourning) to the embalming house, where it was given to the priests responsible for mummification. The priests began by breaking one of the skull bones and extracting the brain, using a metal hook. Then they cut along the body's left flank with a blade of obsidian (a black, glass-like stone) and removed the internal organs to be preserved and buried with the mummy. The stomach cavity was cleansed with palm wine and aromatic essences, and filled with myrrh powder and other substances before the incision was sewn up. The corpse was then covered with natron and left to dry for about 70 days. After this period, the body is just dried flesh and bone, was cleansed, rubbed with aromatic oils and wrapped in linen bindings of several hundred meters long. The fingers, hands and feet were wrapped first, then the torso and finally the entire body. If the deceased was high in rank, golden caps were placed on the fingers and toes of the corpse. A gold foil plate, marked with hieroglyphs to ward off bad luck, was put into the incision in the body cavity, and the eyes were replaced with jewels.
Canopic jars: vessels for internal organs
Organs taken from the body were completely dried, then anointed with sweet-smelling ointments, before being wrapped in linen, like the rest of the body, and stored in Canopic jars. The contents of the jars were placed under the protection of four minor gods called Sons of Horus; the human-headed Imsety looked after the liver, the jackal-headed Duamutef guarded the stomach, the ape-headed Hapy protected the lungs and the falcon-headed Qebehsenuef looked after the intestines.
Before the body was left in the tomb certain rituals were performed. The most important was the "Opening of the Mouth" ceremony, an elaborate procedure involving incantations, purification and anointing of the mummified body that restored the dead person's faculties so that he or she could be reborn in the afterlife. Finally, the mummy was placed inside the coffin, which was taken down to the vault into a burial chamber. Canopic jars and food supplies for the deceased, along with funerary furniture, were also deposited in the chamber before the tomb was sealed by local masons. After the burial, family and guests enjoyed a feast of all kinds of food, wine and beer in honor of the dead. This took place outside the tomb.
Before the deceased could enter the underworld, he had to first face the divine tribunal; this was called "Weighing of the Heart". In this ceremony the deceased earthly deeds were judged by 42 gods overseen by Osiris. In this ritual, the heart, representing a person's past deeds (intellects, emotions and conscience), was weighed against a feather, symbol of justice of the gods. This test was only passed of the balance was level or in the hearts favor, and only then could the deceased travel on to eternity and the afterlife. The deceased is lead into the judgement hall by the god Anubis, whom also conducts the act of the weighing of the heart against the feather. The falcon-headed god Horus is the one that checks the accuracy of the scales, while the god Thoth records the results of the weighing. If the heart was heavier than the feather it was consumed by Amut, the Devourer of the Dead; who was part crocodile, part lion and part hippopotamus. The god of the dead, Osiris, seated on a throne, presides over the tribunal, but waits until told the official result of the test by Thoth.